The round red barn was on Clow Road northwest of Independence in Polk County in 1957. It was built about 1907 by Charley Brooks as a Holstein parlor. He thought it would be more efficient for housing his herd. The owner in 1957, Carl Waltner of Dallas, also used the structure as a cattle barn but said it had no advantages at all except the small one of giving a little more room for working around the livestock. Otherwise, because it was round, nothing fit and it could not be partitioned. Originally the structure had three stories and to get hay into the mow, Brooks drove his teams up a ramp to the second story. The ramp was steep and sometimes the teams stumbled. There was a silo in the middle. From floor to the peak of the barn's conical roof was 40 feet. The diameter was 75 feet.